The adventures of Gary and Carolyn living aboard and continuously cruising the uk canals and rivers on narrowboat Inca

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

High and dry

The day finally arrived for Inca to come out of the water and get her new propeller fitted by Justin of JG Marine. At 09.30 we arrived at the wharf next to the bottom lock in Braunston and were then loaded onto a couple of trollies and pulled out of the water. The plan is to get it done in a few hours and then get back into the water.

This is the reason for coming out. The prop has been well and truly bent on more than one occasion and for a long time now we have been getting a lot of vibration .

We also decided to replace the Cutlass bearing. I thought that it would have been made out of Brass , but it was made out of some sort of Fibre material . All was going well until the new one broke while it was being fitted . This meant that another one had to be ordered and we would have to spend a night out of the water.

This is the view up our bow thruster tube , When we had the boat metalized nearly 2 years ago this is the one place they couldn’t do. So we cleaned the tube out, got rid of the rust and gave it a good coat of blacking.

The next job was to replace our flue pipe. After struggling to get the old one out a new one was made and fitted. Luckily it was replaced by Justin under warranty and Hopefully this one should last a bit longer than the other one.

So this is our land mooring for the night. We can’t light the fire for 24 hours as the sealant needs time to go off. But we do have shore power and are using our central heating. With a bit of luck we should be back in the water tomorrow.

When the bolts on the flexible coupling sheared on my boat whilst going down Knowle, the prop shaft was forced out of line which broke the bearing sleeve :-( Mine turned out to be made of plastic. It was replaced with a decent brass one. In the dry dock at Hatton over Xmas and New Year. Cost me almost £300 :-(

Hi nine9feet. We tried to get a brass one ,but because it was. 30 mm shaft and the external diameter was45 mm it was not an off he shelf part ( well that's what We were told) I will look into it as no doubt this will raise its ugly head again in the future.. Cheers Gary

Consider the wine rationing as good for your health, Gary - it'll give your liver and bit of a rest, mate!Waka Huia is having work done currently, but at Debdale and we are on the other side of the world! Fortunately, I don't have to give up chardonnay to pay for it as I am gainfully employed at the moment!Big hugs to you both, M&D

Hi Marilyn. Wine and rationing aren't two words that go together ...not for me anyway..what are you having done on Waka Huia ? Nothing serious I hope.. Keep working hard and it won't be long before you are back in dear old Blighty ...

Hi Heron's view.. Yes I do agree it could be adapted for a narrowboat..I'm sure a lot of boaters would consider having such a device fitted as it could save a lot of money in repair bills. Worth thinking about.. Thanks for that !